Local Nature Recovery Strategy
​Gloucestershire Local Nature Partnership is supporting Gloucestershire County Council to develop a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Gloucestershire.
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The formal public consultation was run from 8 September 2025 to 19 October 2025. Final edits are now underway in response to the public consultation and we are working towards adoption and publication in early 2026.
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More details on this new strategy: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/ecology-and-landscape/gloucestershire-local-nature-recovery-strategy/​​​
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​A Local Nature Recovery Strategy is a spatial strategy required by the Environment Act 2021 which will guide where and how nature recovery can best be achieved. The government will ask for Local Nature Recovery Strategies to be reviewed and republished every 3 to 10 years.
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The strategy should help inform agri-environment funding applications, strategic planning by local authorities, conservation projects, community action, developers or others changing the use of a site, and Biodiversity Net Gain habitat management plans.
The strategy does not force the owners and managers of the land identified to make any changes. Instead, the strategy will show the priority opportunities and options for maintenance and creation of habitats and species-specific actions. It is a spatial strategy that maps proposals for actions – “Potential Measures” - to drive nature’s recovery.
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​Working with a range of expert partners in Gloucestershire, we have developed 6 Key Messages of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy:
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Safeguarding, managing and enhancing existing biodiversity-rich sites
The complex ecological relationships between species in a habitat are difficult to recreate quickly once a habitat is degraded or destroyed. With the pressure on our wildlife, the highest priority is to safeguard and enhance high quality nature sites and species populations. Landowners and land managers who are already doing this should be supported.
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Landscape scale connectivity - Better, bigger, more and more joined
Maintaining good wildlife habitat and then increasing the size and connectivity of these habitats. This is the core theme of Nature Recovery as expressed in the Making Space for Nature report, with the aim of creating a resilient and coherent nature recovery network. Recommended areas to focus new habitat creation can contribute to meeting the goal of 30 by 30 - at least 30% of land to be protected for nature recovery by 2030.
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Climate Emergency
Climate change is already affecting our wildlife, with temperature, rainfall and growing season changes affecting the timing of natural events such as emergence, pollination and where species can thrive. Nature based solutions can help mitigate some impacts of climate change. Landscape-scale nature recovery can help some species to move northwards or to new niches in response to climate changes.
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Our relationship with water
The need to re-naturalise our river corridors and their relationship with the floodplain, and where appropriate to remove barriers in rivers which impact on the movement of fish species and on sedimentation. Natural flood management can also help to reduce flood risk and build resilience against drought. We need to tackle water quality issues from both point and diffuse sources, and to protect and improve water quantity, for both surface water and groundwater.
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The value of mixed and wilder habitats
Including valuing scrub as a habitat and prioritising mixed habitats with different types and heights of vegetation – this variety is so important for many of our species.
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Biodiversity in our developments and settlements
The importance of nature in our settlements, urban areas and new developments was emphasised by participants in our public engagement sessions, as well as by other stakeholders. Nature in amongst our urban areas and settlements is important for health and wellbeing, for nature connection, for climate change mitigation and for the connectivity of wildlife habitats.
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​​During March and April 2024, Gloucestershire County Council, Gloucestershire Local Nature Partnership and independent facilitators Holding The Space ran community and public engagement sessions to help bring in a range of views and local knowledge to inform the development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy. You can read what we heard and learned here: Report on LNRS Community Engagement Workshops
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